DONE with the DATs !

For those of you who know me well or have been following my delicious blogging from wherever around the world you may be, today I took my DATs!

The DAT, also known as the Dental Admissions Test, is required for entrance to United States dental schools. There are a total of six sections on the DATs that appear in the order of Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Perceptual Ability, Critical Reading, and Quantitative Reasoning. And to think that you're done with standardized tests after high school :p - sorry, try again folks!

Anyways, the experience was quite nerve-wracking to say the least. I was fingerprinted at least six times at the Prometric Test Center where a whole slew of these American standardized tests are administered, and had a camera happily recording my frantic scribbling on the scratch-boards, my attempts to keep the earplugs that they give you inside my ears, and of course my sacred pre-test rituals.

Above all, the MOST amazing/interesting/frightening thing about the DATs - unlike the MCATs - is that your scores are instantaneous. That's right folks. The scores are INSTANTANEOUS! For better or for worse, you'll find out your numeric scores as well as your scored percentiles a mere few moments after you click the final submit. Crazy right? The fact that the scoring comes out ASAP and that you leave the test center with an official print-out of your scores further contributes to the anxiety that comes with months of preparation for a five-hour test. It's quite the experience. It's not meant for the faint of heart, or for those who are prone to anxiety attacks.

For those of you who want to know how I did ... that's NOT important (well, the scores are important, but that's besides the point :p )! Although I felt that I could have done better on one of the sections (which ironically I aced on all of my practice tests beforehand), I am plenty happy with my performance.

Now I can officially begin my dental school applications, and also go out for a round of drinks !!

Best of luck to all of you who still need to take your DATs, MCATs, GREs, SATs, or whatever test it may be. And trust me on this - study hard and don't lose focus! Set high goals - this is your future we're talking about!

Eric

Wisdom Teeth

Stress and anxiety are in the air as we enter spring semester exam period over here in Cambridge, Massachusetts ... BUT it was even worse for a close friend of mine, whose wisdom teeth were causing her a ton of pain and distracting her from studying for exams!

After 2 full days of enduring pain in the back of her gums (our group of friends was fairly certain that her wisdom teeth were the sources of her discomfort), she got her x-rays taken at Mass General Hospital, and here are the results! Isn't this a stunning image? (click to enlarge)

Impacted wisdom teeth

The following day, she got three of her wisdom teeth removed. Take a closer look at the x-ray -- you can probably guess which tooth was NOT removed. If you guessed the one on the upper right-hand side of the image, you're right! As you can see, this tooth appears to be coming at an angle and at a different position than the other three teeth.

The x-ray shown here is called a Panoramic Film, which was taken extra-orally. This is in contrast to the typical Periapical and Bitewing x-rays that are normally taken annually or once every two years. In a Panoramic film, the film is placed outside of the mouth on the opposite of the head from the X-ray source. The result is an extra-oral radiographic view, as shown above.

Anyways, I'll be sure to add an update if and when my friend's final wisdom tooth is removed!

Back to exam-studying ...

Eric

Human Evolutionary Biology 1421: Teeth

As mentioned previously, at the 2011 Boston Pre-Dental Conference hosted by Harvard's very own Pre-Dental Society (which was a tremendous success by the way, see my previous post!), there were a number of fantastic speakers and presenters. One of whom, Dr. Tanya Smith, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, gave a truly fascinating presentation not only on her research on dental development and 3D fossil tooth structure, but also on her course to be offered next Fall semester!

Her course is aptly named Human Evolutionary Biology 1421: Teeth. Although the course name may sound ridiculously boring and sleep-inducing to some of you (my friend Judith says this sounds potentially worse than Plant Biology), to the few of us enlightened folk out there - isn't this really exciting? Seriously though ...

Anyways, the last time the course was offered, which was in Fall of 2009, the class received near perfect ratings (4.8 out of 5 on the Harvard Q Guide). Plus, the research seminar-type class is capped at 6 students, and you spearhead your own independent research project. That's right, SIX students! I guess there is life after those humongous general chemistry and organic chemistry lectures.

Here's the course description from the website:

"Teeth are one of the best preserved and most commonly-recovered elements in fossil assemblages. This seminar will focus on ways in which dental remains may inform studies of primate growth and development, ecology, and social structure. Students will read and discuss current scientific literature, engage in histological studies in the Dental Hard Tissue Laboratory, and conduct pilot research projects."

So that probably sent the rest of you packing. BUT to me and a couple of my friends this is amazing!

Another friend says that there might as well be a course titled Human Evolutionary Biology 4321: Eyeballs for people interested in optometry school. What's next, an English department? Ahhh let's pretend she didn't say that ...

See you at shopping week!

This hygiene is acceptable ... if you've been dead for a few centuries.

Eric

Sink your teeth into something (idioms #4)

Sink your teeth into usually precedes a noun, which may or may not be something edible.

Typically, to sink your teeth into something is to really muster your powers and/or energy either to understand something or to get a good grip mentally, emotionally, and perhaps even physically of something. Similar idioms include digging deep as in digging deep for the solution.

i.e. She finally sank her teeth into the crux of the problem and was able to find a resolution that satisfied both parties.

On the other hand, to sink your teeth into something may also imply having a rather voracious appetite, and consequently the quick and plunging sinking of your teeth into whatever food hits the spot.

i.e. My sister sank her teeth into the brussel sprouts (weird), while my brother sank his teeth into durian fruit (weirder).

Durians. Spiky, eh?

Hedgehogs. Cute, right?

Dur-hog or Hedge-ian, otherwise known as a Durian-Hedgehog hybrid. (weirdest)

Eric

The Shark Dentist

I stumbled across this gem and thought I'd share.

The Shark Dentist, digital illustrations by Rich Werner.

See the complete set of illustrations here

Eric

Kim Clijsters won the Aussie Open ... with the help of a Dentist!

For those of you who don't follow tennis, earlier today Kim Clijsters of Belgium won the 2011 Australian Open women's singles title, her fourth Grand Slam title. She defeated Li Na of China 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win her first Grand Slam in the land down under, and will be looking to retire within the next year after having come out of a previous retirement back in 2007. Interesting. And exciting! But you may have already gathered that from the thousands of articles about her hard-fought win today.

But what you probably didn't hear ... was that Clijsters had chipped her tooth when she landed at the airport before the tournament even began! Some say - and by 'some' I mean myself - that it's possible she wouldn't have won the Aussie Open had a dentist not come to her aid in this oral emergency! In fact, she may have had to withdraw from the tournament completely due to the excruciating pain ... (just kidding here)!

So it turns out most chipped tooth situations aren't that painful. But it IS important to see a dentist as soon as you can after you realize your tooth has been chipped. Depending on the severity of the situation, you may need a filling or even a crown. Besides potential pain, increased sensitivity to cold and heat, and perhaps a small hole in your smile, an obvious reason to visit a dentist immediately is so your gums or tongue don't suffer any damage from a sharp, jagged-edged tooth. This is not unlike a shark, but sharks probably don't think about these issues.

Anyways, here's the quote from her press conference after her win:

"Q: What happened to your teeth at the airport?


Kim Clijsters: To my tooth? Yeah, it chipped off. That's what happened. I was eating a rice cracker, actually, nothing hard. Just a nice, soft rice cracker. I thought there was like a piece of rice that wasn't cooked well or something, and I just spat it out. I felt my tooth not being there completely, so I was like, Oh boy."

Oh boy indeed! Who knew that an innocent rice cracker could win a battle of strength against your tooth?

"I went to a dentist here in Melbourne and he fixed me up really quickly ... He just said that me if you get to the final ... so I promised him 'OK, for sure, I'll do that.' So, thank you."

That's very sportsmanship-like of you Kim - congrats on the win!

But anyways, case in point, dentists are more important than you might think! Although a chipped tooth is probably one of the best worst things that could happen to you from a sports injury or any injury whatsoever, more damage could have easily been done. If Kim was a high school tennis player with braces and suffered a 35 meters/second (or 80 mph) tennis ball to the face, the situation would have been much different. An oral surgeon may have been involved!

Oh, and here's my favorite bit from Kim:

"Q. Are you going to name the mystery dentist?

Clijsters: I actually don’t remember his name. He was somewhere near Chapel Street."

:)

Kim's pearly whites

What was the dentist's name??

Eric